


The Choices We Make

by fidelissimi



Series: Choices Verse [1]
Category: Actor RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Bottom Jared, Established Relationship, M/M, Mpreg, Teen Pregnancy, Teen Romance, Top Jensen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-13 03:03:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11750712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fidelissimi/pseuds/fidelissimi
Summary: Jared Padalecki learns just before his junior year of high school that he's pregnant by life-long love turned boyfriend (finally) of 2 years, Jensen Ackles. Jared has semi-supportive parents; Jensen's... not so much. When the boys present their options to their folks, they all try to help Jared and Jensen make a decision about what they're going to do about their future and their unborn baby's future, too.Based off the movie Juno, with a couple of twists and plot changes, so it's onlykind oflike Juno.More tags will be added as they become relevant.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Posting this mainly to see if there's any interest in continuing this story. I have most of another chapter finished, but I don't want to waste precious time or sleep (I'm a mom, those are important XD) if there's no interest or if people don't like my writing style.
> 
> A/N 2: Turns out there was some interest, so this story will be a thing!

When Jared is four he falls in love with Jensen Ackles, the older boy (by a year) from down the street that breaks his red, double-stick Popsicle in half and shares it with him at the neighborhood park the day after Jared moved into his new house. 

That summer finds them inseparable, and after Jensen decides Jared is worth sharing his new Ninja Turtle walkie-talkies with, they both push their parents' patience by staying up past their eight-thirty bed times to talk about the new awesome-ultra-cool playground they played on all day and how they needed to build an even cooler Command Center for their Power Ranger action figures in the sandbox soon.

The bus stop for school happens to be right on the corner in front of Jared's house, and when the school year rolls around, Jensen is excited to start his first day of kindergarten. Jared does his very best not to let Jensen see him cry because he can't go with him, but Jensen is smart and he can see Jared trying to be brave. Jensen just gives him an extra tight hug and promises he'll see him when he gets home and tell him about every second of his day. Jared gives him an apple, "for y'er teacher, cause they likes that kinds'a stuff, right Jen?" but Jensen knows it's really for him. He waves goodbye as the younger boy stands on his front porch and Jensen boards the bus with a brave face, mainly just for Jared's sake. Jensen eats the apple Jared gave him at lunch and hides the carrot sticks from his lunch bag in his pocket to share with Jared when he gets home because he knows they're Jared's favorite.

Jared starts school the next year and asks his mom on the first day if Jensen can ride to school with them instead of taking the bus all by himself (but mostly just without Jared). When she says yes and calls Jensen's mom, who also says yes, Jared does a happy dance until the moment Jensen is on his doorstep and he has to chill out so Jensen doesn't know he was acting foolishly like Mackenzie and Megan, the baby sisters they each got when they both became big brothers around the same time two summer's before.  
They ride to school in the back of Jared's mom's mini-van, Megan babbling away about her new My Little Pony coloring book, then walk into the school together holding hands. Jensen shows Jared where his classroom is and hugs him tight before he heads to his own classroom on the first grade hallway. They share their apple and carrot sticks at recess every day.

Life goes on this way, or something very much like it, until Jensen goes to high school, and Jared still has one more year left at the middle school. Once Jensen gets over the initial butterflies in his belly on his first day as a freshman, and Jared punches him in the shoulder at the bus stop and tells him to quit fidgeting like a girl, Jensen smiles and messes up Jared's hair, before he pulls him in close and presses a kiss to the crown of Jared's head. Jared thinks he won't be able to do that much longer because by the next year he thinks he'll be taller than Jensen is. 

Jensen gets his first real girlfriend that year, Katie Cassidy, and Jensen and Jared don't spend as much time together, which twists Jared's stomach into knots on a daily basis. He knew when he was four that he loved Jensen, but now he really, really thinks that might not have been the silly puppy-love kid-stuff like his mom tried to tell him it was. He's got a green streak a mile wide running through him the whole year until Jensen breaks up with Katie on the last day of school and tells her it was fun, and he liked her alright, but they weren't right for each other. Jared's world seems right again when Jensen comes over to hang out in Jared's basement-slash-bedroom and tells him what he did, but Jared schools his features into something resembling sympathy and tells his best friend that he's sorry it didn't work out. He also tells his mom and dad at dinner a couple nights later that, after a lot of thinking, he's pretty sure he likes boys, as well as girls.

The Padalecki's are only a little bit shocked by this, because Jared had a couple of crushes on some girls his last year of middle school even though they were nothing serious, but they don't tell him that his liking boys is a phase or that he'll grow out of it, or that he's wrong for feeling the way he does. Jared loves his parents for having an open mind and not judging him. He doesn't admit until halfway through the summer that he's pretty sure he doesn't like just any boys, but Jensen in particular, and he doesn't see the knowing look his mom gives his dad when he says it.

When Jared gets to the high school the next year, it's Jensen's turn to make fun of him about the tummy butterflies, and Jared gives him a bitchface even though he knows he deserves the good natured ribbing. Jensen takes Jared on a grand tour of the school before classes start for the first day so Jared can map out the easiest route to all his classes, 'like the geek you are' Jensen teases, and they end up with lockers just down the hall from each other, so Jared sees Jensen between classes and at least gives him a wave before he heads off to his next class. 

Their friends - Christian Kane, who is Jensen's age, and Chad Murray and Danneel Harris, who are Jared's age - all live in or around their neighborhood, and attend the same schools they have all their lives. They all eat lunch together when they find out they have the same lunch block, and take advantage of the warmth of the end of summer and beginning of fall weather by hanging out and eating at the picnic tables outside the cafeteria. Jared, who is usually a little more shy and reserved around most people (except Jensen) contracts a rare bout of bravery one day and reaches for Jensen's hand under the table. Jensen looks down at their hands, up at Jared, down again at their hands before he grins, tightens his grip for a split second and then goes on with the conversation with Danneel about the upcoming football game he and Christian have coming up on Friday without ever letting go of Jared's hand. Danneel gives Jared a smile from across the table that says _'jesus christ, finally!'_ and Jared blushes a deep red but lays his head on Jensen's shoulder and no one else seems to think anything of it.

Jared's freshman and sophomore years seem to fly by, and he's making straight A's in all his advanced placement classes, heading the debate team as a sophomore, which is unheard of, and considering majoring in engineering once he gets to college. Jensen is the star player on the school's football team, gets the position of Team Captain as a junior, and is named the number one running back in high school football in the country, leaving him open to choose just about any university he wants when the time comes. Jensen tells Jared he loves him on his front porch that year, where they first met, and of course Jared says it back. It's their one year anniversary and Jensen cooks Jared his favorite dinner all by himself, and they 'trade V-cards' as Jensen so eloquently put it, shortly after their food settles. 

Jared's mother had him tested for the carrier gene, just like Jensen's did, once he told her that he and Jensen were "sexually active" (he hates using that term, but prefers it over telling her that they're 'finally fucking' - because that wouldn't go over well at all... plus it makes him sound more grown up than he feels) and it was determined that he, unlike Jensen, was a carrier, which wouldn't be an issue if he weren't bisexual and had a boyfriend, but he was put on birth control pills anyway, just to err on the side of caution, which he was grateful for. Jensen was happy too, because they agreed he wouldn't have to use condoms. Jared makes him wear them for a while, until he was completely settled into the knowledge that Jensen certainly wasn't going to be sleeping with anyone else and he knew his pills were firmly in his system and working like they should be. They ran out of the super sized box of Trojans Chad bought Jensen as a gag gift for his birthday, however useful it was, and when they realized they were out they just didn't bother buying more.

The summer before Jensen's senior year and Jared's junior year, Jared gets sick for almost two weeks in the middle of the summer, - antibiotics, bed rest, the works are all required - and Jensen stays home instead of going on the month-long Ackles/Padalecki combined-family summer vacation they go on every year so he could take care of his boyfriend. No amount of chicken noodle soup, sleep, or beating Jensen shamelessly on Xbox games really made Jared feel better, but falling asleep in Jensen's arms every night is the best remedy he can think of, and he gets to spend an entire month alone with Jensen, so he takes the whole situation as a win.

As far as most teenage fairy-tale romances go, this one was everything they could ask for.

Of course, this is usually where things start to go completely sideways, too... right?


	2. Two Unholy Pink Lines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this doesn't disappoint!  
> Comments & kudos are love!
> 
> I'm working on the next chapter already, so it could be up within a few days.  
> Also looking for a beta if anyone is interested. Message me on my tumblr account: [wincestheart](http://wincestheart.tumblr.com)

"Just lemme go look at it. One little peek and I'll be right back here."

"No."

"Jared, please? This wait is killin' me. C'mon, it's gotta be done by now. They don't _really_ take _all_ five minutes."

"I said _no_ , Jensen. I'm not ready yet."

That's how the conversation goes for the next four minutes, Jared holding tight to the crook of Jensen's elbow so he doesn't stride back into the bathroom of his own accord. They'd been in there together just moments earlier, reading over the how-to paperwork in the box and after the allotted 30 seconds of saturation time, Jared capped the business end and left the pregnancy test on the counter... upside down. 

He frog marched Jensen out of the room to sit with him on his bed and had been staring at the same spot on the wall, just below the clock, for four and a half minutes now, denying Jensen's unrelenting request to go look and waiting the last thirty seconds for the timer on his phone to indicate that his fate was written clearly in the results window of a dollar store pregnancy test. He had ten minutes from then to look or the test results could be considered inaccurate. He planned to use up as much of that time as he could.

Jared felt sick... but this time it was different than how he had felt in the past week, before he realized what all these sudden symptoms were that kept popping up. Before, Jared was always a big eater, enjoying food as much, if not more, than most guys his age because he was creeping up on six-foot-two already and he was just getting ready to start his junior year of high school. He could eat as much as half the football team all by himself usually and not gain an ounce from it because of his ridiculously fast metabolism. Lately, he practically ignored lunch and dinner every night for almost a week because the smell of _everything_ made him want to puke up whatever breakfast he'd been able to stomach after his daily visit to offer up whatever measly bit of food (or not) that was in his stomach already. This time though, he just felt like he wanted to curl up in a corner and rock the nausea away, ignore that any of this could possibly be happening to him at all.

Jared wasn't sure where exactly he could've gone wrong, where he'd messed up. Because it _had_ to be on him, since he was the one taking birth control pills. He didn't think he'd ever missed one, and if he had he'd know since it would've been staring him in the face when he opened the little pill container that numbered each day for him. And sure, he could've insisted that Jensen wear a condom when they had sex, but he didn't think it was really necessary since he was on the pill. Those little white blessings hadn't failed them at all for an entire year, and Jared was sure that, after all this time, they would continue to do their job until much, much later when - and if - he and Jensen got married. It could wait until they were ready to start a family and then he stopped taking them altogether. All he knew now, though, was that somewhere along the line he'd screwed up in a major way... especially if his suspicions on being pregnant were true. 

Jared was pulled from his sweat-inducing thoughts yet again when Jensen shook his shoulder lightly, worry burning in pine needle green eyes. "Babe, hey where'd you go? You with me?" Jared just nodded, fear gripping him again at being brought back to the reality of their situation. "Seriously Jay, I'm gonna go look at it. I can't just sit here anymore. You comin' or not?"

Jared peeled his eyes from Jensen's face and glanced towards the bathroom door, breath quickening as his heart raced in his chest. He shook his head no, bangs falling in front of his eyes as he let go of Jensen's elbow and stared down resolutely at his lap starting to pick away nervously as his nails like he did anytime he was truly shaken by something.  
"Go ahead." His voice was small, much to small to be coming out of a guy his size. "I'm pretty sure we both know what it says already anyway." 

That alone worried Jensen further but he stood up before leaning over to press a kiss to the crown of Jared's head, running his fingers gently through Jared's brown locks and walking into the bathroom, collecting the test in his hands without looking at it directly. He came back out to kneel between his boyfriends knees, the result window of the test facing the floor between them.

"On the count of three?" he asked, but Jared didn't answer, his sights already set squarely on the plastic stick and bottom lip wobbling. Jensen blew out a breath, shakier than any he could ever remember. "One..." He tucked his thumbs under the test as his hands shook uncontrollably, getting ready to turn it over. "Two..." The moment of truth. Jared was shaking. "Three."

And there it was. 

Two unholy pink lines. 

"Damn."

Jared could almost hear his entire future crumbling just under the thundering sound of his heartbeat in his ears. Nails biting into his palms, teeth grit, he barely noticed that he was crying until his vision was too blurry with tears to see through.  
He was pregnant. 

They were having a baby; a tiny human that would rely on them for everything, that they were responsible for turning into an upstanding member of society. Suddenly the weight of the world was on Jared's shoulders and the nausea that usually only appeared in the morning or after he ate something (which meant pretty much _anything_ , these days) came rushing back with a vengeance and he barely made it past Jensen, stumbling into the bathroom before he was on his knees making another sacrifice to the porcelain gods.

\---

Three days later, Jensen ambled down the stairs to Jared's basement bedroom in search of his boyfriend, only to find Jared curled up on the couch in a **Richardson High Raiders** football t-shirt of Jensen's and a pair of sweatpants that he always had to tie extra tight to stay on his lean hips. He had a can of ginger ale in one hand and the television remote in the other, eyes staring blankly at the large screen in front of him, looking like he was completely lost in thought instead of paying attention to the debate playing out in front of him on the news channel he'd settled on. 

Any other time it would be normal for Jensen to come down and find Jared enthralled with whatever geeky show he decided to watch that day, but the fact that he watched the news next to never, unless his parents forced him to spend time upstairs with them and it was on the living room television, spoke volumes to Jensen. 

Jensen had gone to summer two-a-days with the football team, intent on practicing like he always did, running his routes and showing off the skills he possessed on the field with ease. Today he'd been made to run laps because his focus was all off and he accepted the punishment for his scatterbrained attitude, glad to give himself some time to think about the situation he and Jared had found themselves in. 

They hadn't broken the news to their parents yet, though Jared and Jensen both agreed it would be better to do it soon and get it out of the way so they could move on to the part where they asked for forgiveness, and then for advice on what the hell to do about Jared being pregnant. They were pretty sure neither of them would be grounded, or forced to stay away from each other, because really, what more trouble could they get into now, right?

Feet shuffling, legs heavy from a long day of practice, Jensen slugged his way over to the couch and laid an easy hand on the back of Jared's neck, leaning over to give the top of Jared's head a kiss when Jared jumped at the sudden contact, startled back to the present.

"Jen, hey." He sounded short of breath, like he hadn't noticed Jensen's sudden presence, and Jensen guessed he really hadn't expected him, lost in thought as he'd been. 

"Hey Punk." No one knows that particular nickname is short for _"Punkin'"_ and Jensen is pretty sure if anyone ever found out Jared would freak out and deny it 'til his dying day, but in private he absolutely loves it and Jensen loves the smile it puts on his boyfriend's face. He hasn't seen that in days and he really needs to right now.

Jared doesn't disappoint, but it's not as bright of a smile as he's used to and there's no accompanying dimples this time. Jensen slides onto the couch between Jared and the pillow propped up on the arm and Jared - tall, lanky, and all arms and legs - finds a way to make himself so small he fits in Jensen's lap and tucks his face into the spot between his neck and shoulder before he's enveloped by strong arms that hold Jared close to a sturdy chest.

"How's it goin'?" Jensen asks, with only a little bit of hesitation, because he knows how stupid that question is. 

"I think I figured it out."

"... Figured what out?"

"How... _this_ happened." He says it like he can't actually make himself say the word 'pregnant'. He's tried, in the privacy of even his own mind, and it just doesn't happen without making him shiver.

Jensen tugs lightly at Jared's hair to get him to pull his face from his neck and look at him properly. "I knew you would, nerd," he tries with a grin, but Jared just shakes his head and pulls the open laptop off the table in front of them, settles it on his lap as shaky fingers moving over the mouse pad until he pulls up a number of different pages he got his information off of.

"I never missed a pill, you made sure I didn't and so did I, but then I saw this."

Jared points silently at a webpage listing different types of antibiotic medications and how they can effect birth control pills, making some of them less effective, and Jared's brand is one of the few listed that loses it's effectiveness altogether while antibiotics are being taken. He clicks over to another reputable source that says the exact same thing and points it out to Jensen as green eyes scan over the information quickly and Jensen let's out a resigned huff of breath.

Jared is right. Of course.

Jensen's hold on Jared tightens as he lets the words on the screen sink in, and sure, knowing Jared was pregnant - seeing the proof of it on a test - was one thing, but actually knowing they did everything that they'd always done, and had done it right was what punched him in the gut. They didn't ask for this but they got it anyway, and while it's always been a point of contention between himself and Jared, Jensen was more apt to believe that everything happened for a reason - fate, if you will - and was starting to feel the same way about this situation as well. 

"So... we didn't fuck up? It was... what... some medicine you took?"

Jared nods. "Yeah, I told my doctor what meds I was on, including my birth control, and he gave me that antibiotic anyway, because he said it worked best. I didn't think about askin' him at the time how it would screw up what I was already taking. I didn't know it could. I'm so sorry Jen."

He says it like he's the only one to blame and Jensen is having none of that.

"Hey, now look here, you didn't knock yourself up, okay? I'm just as much at fault for... all'a this... as you are," he says, his hand waving vaguely in the direction of Jared's belly. "You didn't know. We didn't know." Life is like that for them now. Always 'we' and never 'you' or 'me' alone.

He has a flash of a moment where he thinks how strange it is for Jared not to know something, though, and how his geeky, nerdy, bookworm boyfriend knows pretty much everything. Kid could be a rocket scientist before he could legally drink if he wanted to, and Jensen is proud as hell of that fact, but this time, his intelligence did nothing to help their situation.

Jared closes the laptop and slides it back onto the table, curling up again in Jensen's lap, arms hung loosely around his neck and face tucked into his shoulder again where Jensen can feel more than hear him speaking.

"I figured we should know, or at least have some idea what happened... for when we talk to our folks. That way, I mean it doesn't really make it better, but at least we have an explanation. We were safe. We did everything we promised we'd do. They can't get mad about that, right?"

He sounds so young suddenly, and Jensen only holds him tighter and rocks then both, nodding against the side of Jared's head. "Yeah baby. We did. But hey, this is our mess to worry about, and nothin' they or anyone else says is gonna change nothin'. We'll figure this out together okay? S'just you and me, like always."

There's an almost imperceptible nod against his skin and Jensen rocks them steadily for a few long minutes until Jared's body seems heavier and when he checks, Jared is fast asleep on him. He shuffles them around slightly until he can lay down behind Jared on the couch and hold him, one hand settling over the steady _thump-thump_ of Jared's heart when he really wants to settle a broad palm over Jared's belly. He can't make himself do it yet.


	3. The Things We Consider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jared watches Jensen's football practice, then brings up something he thinks they should consider about the baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story may get written and posted a lot slower than I originally thought, but I am still going to try to keep updating as often as I can.  
> There's a lot of personal stuff going on right now but I will do my best not to let you guys down.
> 
> Still unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.

Jared is sitting in the stands of the high school's football stadium, two hours of the unrelenting sun beating down on him while he hydrates constantly -thanks to Jensen's advice- with the water bottles he brought from home. He's watching Jensen intently, admiring his boyfriend's lithe and athletic physique from afar and waiting for practice to be over so they can head back to Jensen's house for the evening. Their parents are getting ready to have a cookout, and unknowingly waiting to be told about their upcoming thrust into grandparenthood. 

Jared's probably never been as nervous as he is right now, and he knows the feeling will just increase the closer time gets to them sitting down with their families and announcing their news. He's been tempted to share his news with his little sister since he found out, but he doesn't entirely trust Megan to keep this secret, even though he's trusted her with just about every other one he's ever had. 

He also refuses to call his brother, Jeff, who's already headed back to college for the start of the school year to get his new apartment in order. He trusts his brother just about as much as he does his sister, but he knows for damn sure that Jeff will spill the beans on him, and he wanted to make the decision on how and when his parents hear this news on his own terms instead of hiding like a coward and letting them find out from someone other than him and Jensen.  
Right now though, Jared is trying to figure out how to tell Jensen something that he hasn't had the balls to tell him since the day they found out they were having a baby. Jared has been spending way more time hiding downstairs in his room and on his laptop than he normally does, and he has good reason for it.  
The day after he got "the big fat positive", Jared started looking up his options, and since he's not an idiot he knows there's really only three of them available to him. 

Abortion, adoption, and raising the baby with Jensen.

Needless to say, being sixteen with two years left in high school, he's not so hot on the last option at the moment. It's hard to imagine juggling all the extra curricular activities he's been involved in to pad his college applications, along with all the responsibility of having a child and keeping up a healthy and as-normal-as-two-teen-parents-can-have relationship with his boyfriend, though if he had to pick anyone he loved and trusted enough to go through this with, it's Jen.

Jared's also looked up the statistics on teenage parents finishing grade school and the numbers aren't exactly in his favor. Not to mention, this is Jensen's last year of high school and then he'll be off to wherever he commits to for college, leaving Jared alone with a baby that they should be raising together. 

He's also not even remotely a fan of the first option, so that's decidedly out before any consideration really takes place. No if's, and's, or but's about it. No matter what, this baby is still a part of him and a part of Jensen (which somehow ends up being the point of clarity that reassures him this is the right call) and he can't.... he just _can't_. Plus his foray online into all things abortion only solidified in his mind that he wanted nothing to do with the trip down that particular road. Not that he's judging anyone that has chosen it, but it's just _really_ not for him.

He's sweating a dark ring around the neck of his t-shirt and intermittently stopping his leg from jumping where he's got his foot resting on the bleacher bench in front of him. He gave up on Candy Crush on his phone an hour ago, hoping it would give him something to focus on, but every time he heard a voice calling out the next play the team was about to execute, Jared's concentration on lining up red and yellow and purple candies went out the window in favor of ogling the long line of his boyfriend's back and shoulders and how good his butt looked while he ran in his practice pants.

And this is what got him pregnant in the first place. Jeez, Jared. **Concentrate**.

Pending Jensen's reaction, though, Jared is pretty sure he's made up his mind about what path he's going to take as far as the baby is concerned. He's less than a week into the knowledge that there's really a baby growing inside of him, but he's already kind of connected to the kid, and that made it less easy to come to the conclusion that adoption may really be their best option. At least the best option for him and the baby, but he's not entirely sure Jensen is going to agree. 

He knows how protective Jensen is of his family, proven by the fact that he literally knocked a guy out on the playground last summer for making fun of his three-year-old cousin, who stuttered for a minute over a word most three-year-olds couldn't say to begin with. Why he'd gotten so hot under the collar about it was beyond Jared's immediate comprehension, but he knows from that show of undying devotion to anyone blood related to him that it won't be easy to make Jensen see that giving their baby to a family that has the means to take care of them better than they do right now would be the best option.

He's trying to be logical instead of letting his emotions get the best of him, but it's not as easy as he'd hoped. He's heard emotions are wacky when you're pregnant but he doesn't think that's what this is.

In an attempt not to waterlog his stomach before they can get back to Jensen's for the cook out and Jared can mostly just tease his food around on his plate and hopefully keep a few bites down if he dares to take any at all, he puts the water bottles in his thermos cooler bag and takes out a slice of bread from a sandwich baggy to nibble on. It's about the plainest thing he could find in his mom's pantry that he's about 75% sure won't make a reappearance later.

The Raider's coach calls it a day on practice and Jared finishes his bread just in time for Jensen to reach him and tilt Jared's chin up with one finger, greeting him with a kiss. "How'd I do?" he asks, setting his helmet on the bleacher he straddles in front of Jared as he unwraps the tape from around his wrists. 

"You're the number one running back in the state, genius. You tell me how you think you did," Jared teases. He's super proud of Jensen for that, and it's evident in the way he proudly wears his letter jacket around during the school year to flaunt the fact that he is Jensen's and Jensen is his and that they wouldn't have it any other way.

"Can't blame a guy for tryin' to fish for a compliment," Jensen retorts, throwing the sweaty ball of wrist tape at Jared's face and getting a punch to the shoulder for it, which only makes him chuckle harder. A group of girls, including Jensen's ex from freshman year, Katie, watch their interaction from a few sections down on the bleachers, and Jared sees them, waves, and then zips up his cooler bag as Katie rolls her eyes at him. 

She's still a little salty about Jensen breaking up with her after their freshman year and then starting to date Jared almost as soon as the next school year started, and she's never hidden that from Jared or Jensen. Jensen doesn't care, but it makes Jared a little uncomfortable and he knows she's started more than one rumor about him that Jensen immediately did damage control over and stomped out before it got off the ground too much. 

He hates to think what she'll do once the school year actually starts and he gets to the point he can't hide the fact that he's pregnant. Then he wonders if Jensen will want him to try to hide it or if it'll be another one of those situations Jensen looks at with his usual carefree demeanor and shrugs a shoulder at as if he's not phased by it in the slightest.  
That's exactly the way he was when word got around that Jensen Ackles was gay ( _"M'not gay,"_ he'd said, _"I just like people who are good to me, and Jared's always been the best,"_ he'd said. Jared gave him brownie points for that one) and had a boyfriend. Then that boyfriend's identity was revealed to be no one other than his best friend since childhood, the bookworm, Jared Padalecki, and the school's gossip grapevine went into an uproar about how strange of a couple they made and people honestly placed bets on how long it would last. They gave up by the end of the school year, which was a point of pride for Jared, even if he never said anything about it.

"Yo. Earth to Jared." Speak of the devil.

Blinking owlishly, Jared blushes a little and ducks his head. "Sorry. I've been a damn space cake all day."

Jensen shakes his head and leans in to press his lips to Jared's, staying in his bubble for the moment until Jared pushes him away. "You stink. Go shower so we can get going. Time to face the music soon," Jared sighs heavily like he's literally holding the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Jensen hates that Jared feels like he's going in front of a firing squad, or something equally as terrifying, and runs a hand up and down Jared's arm, touch light and comforting. "Hey don't start gettin' shaky over all'a this now. Ain't nothin' gonna change it, and I for one ain't gonna give myself an ulcer over it. Neither should you, baby boy." 

_Easy for you to say,_ Jared thinks silently to himself, but his face carries the message across loud and clear. _You're not the one that's gotta carry the proof of this screw up under your t-shirt for the whole world to see, Jensen Ross._

At least Jensen is smart enough to move his butt and finally head towards the locker room to take a quick shower. Meanwhile, Jared is stopped on his way out of the stadium by Katie, of course, who's got the look of a predator in her eyes that she's never really cared to try and hide.

"Things seem a little tense with you and your beau," she says from behind him, causing Jared to stop halfway down the walkway and turn to glare at her. 

"What makes you say that?" 

He doesn't think she and her friends were close enough to hear Jensen mention anything, and he knows their conversations about this topic, in particular, sound cryptic even to them most of the time. There's no way she'd know what was really going on, but still, even as he stands to almost his full height, there's a tenseness in his shoulders that she must pick up on.

"Oh, ya know. You can always tell when there's trouble in paradise. The way he petted your arm all nice-like. The way you looked at him like he's a superhero... as soon as you took the time to even realize he was standing there in the first place. You really should appreciate him more, Jared, or he's gonna lose interest. You know how his attention span is."

She's dangerously close to hitting the nail on the head, because, in Jared's situation, he's absolutely counting on Jensen's support in full, but Jared will be damned if he's going to give her the satisfaction of knowing it and thinking there's any chance she can sink her claws into Jensen again. That year had almost been Jared's undoing and he wasn't gonna be there for a repeat. Not happening, sister.

"We're fine. But I do appreciate you looking out for us, Katie. You're a real good friend," he spits out the last word like it's acid on his tongue, a little more of his natural Texan accent showing through as he does, and he gives her the fakest smile he can manage before he turns on his heels and heads to the parking lot to wait in Jensen's car.

Even though he personally had nothing to do with Jensen breaking up with Katie at the end of her freshman year, it sets his insecurities on edge knowing that at some point in the immediate future, Katie will still have the body of a goddess and Jared will be walking around the school like he has a stick wedged firmly up his rear end and complaining of back pain from having a belly so big and heavy. He wonders if Jensen will still find him attractive like he claims to now, or if he'll want the 'old Jared' back.

"God, you really are spacing out hard today aren't you?"

Jared jumps nearly six inches out of his seat and almost hits his head on the car ceiling. "Goddammit, Jen! A little warning next time?" He doesn't mean his chastisement, and Jensen probably did say his name three times or so, but Jared's a little annoyed with himself that he wasn't paying attention. 

Jensen just shrugs and rounds the car to get into the driver's seat, points the air conditioning vents at himself and throws his seat belt on. Only then does he glance over at Jared, who has still turned a nice shade of embarrassed-pink, and plants another long, slower-than-the-last, perfect kiss against Jared's lips. It's hot, brain-melting hot, and Jared's entire thought process shuts down while Jensen nibbles gently at his bottom lip and sucks on his tongue just like Jared likes.

"Love you Punk."

"I love you too."

"You ready for this?" Jensen puts the car in drive before he reaches for Jared's hand, pulls it up to peck over his knuckles a few times.

"Yeah. No. Fuck, I dunno man. It'd just be really great if they didn't hate us after we tell 'em, ya know? That's really all I'm hoping for."

Jensen pulls out onto the road and takes off in the direction of their neighborhood. He gives an affirmative hum but doesn't say much else in response to Jared's worries. He's got worries of his own, ones he hasn't yet filled Jared in on, but with the way Jared has been absolutely lost in his own thoughts today, Jensen isn't sure he needs to burden Jared with them right now, or start a fight with him that they can't finish before they get back to his house. 

"Hey Jen, if I run somethin' by you, d'you think you can... I dunno... keep an open mind about it?"

Jared sounds like just asking that might set him on the edge of tears, but the words make Jensen suddenly nervous as hell, and he finds he likes that feeling about as much as a root canal. "Uh, sure. Yeah, I guess."

Jared tries to recall all the facts he looked up online to maybe... maybe... help his case. He spent hours memorizing them, instead of reading from the summer reading list he was almost finished with, but he doesn't think anyone could really blame him. "Did you know that less than 40% of teens that begin their families before they turn eighteen ever earn a high school diploma? And... and only 1.5% earn a college degree by the time they turn 30?" That sounds like a good place to start. 

Jensen grins and shakes his head, no. "I didn't, but I ain't surprised you do."

Jared has enough sense to look sheepish for a moment before he starts talking again. "That's just what I read. I mean I dunno how true it is but, see I was online again last night, and I was lookin' through these websites about... ya know, about the uh, the options that people have when they get p-pregnant, by mistake, like this." That might be the first time he's said that word since they found out, Jensen thinks.

Jensen tries not to let himself flinch at the word 'mistake', but already he thinks he knows, vaguely, where this conversation might be going, and already he's not sure how he feels about it. They haven't really talked about much yet... their 'options'... and in hindsight maybe they should have before they decided to break the news to their parents. They should have had a plan in place, however tentative it may have been. 

Jared isn't the only one that's been thinking about their options, though Jensen is almost positive they're looking at this like they're on two sides of the same window. Sure, he never really thought he'd be a dad at eighteen, but he also didn't think he'd be all that horrible at it if it ever happened, no matter what point in his life he was in. Jared, though, seemed to be avoiding talking about the baby or the pregnancy or anything related to it unless he was spewing facts he'd read online or looked up in his mom's old "What to Expect" books he found tucked under the bathroom sink. He seemed detached from the idea that it was real, while Jensen was trying his best to be rational about it and keep an open mind.

Usually, they were a nice balance for each other, but that nagging suspicion -that this time, that might not be how things go- was growing. 

"So what are you sayin' Jare? You think just 'cause you're pregnant that you ain't gonna finish school? 'Cause I'll be the first to tell ya, that ain't how this is gonna go down. Not at all. You been workin' way too hard at being the smartest kid in the school not to graduate Valedictorian in a couple'a years. It's gonna happen, and we're gonna do what we gotta do t'make it happen."

Jared was relieved at Jensen's words, at the resolution in his tone, and he hoped that it might play in his favor. "See, I was thinking the same thing. And I came across this... this site... it was..." he pauses, licks his lips before they draw into a tight line for a few seconds or so. "It was an adoption site. Gave all the facts and stats and everything you could wanna know. And I was thinkin', I mean we're so young, Jensen. We got all these big plans and stuff, what with you and football and my graduation and what'n'all. What if we..." he cleared his throat, his hand tensing where Jensen's fingers laced gently with his own and rested along the inside of his thigh. "What if we considered adoption? Findin' some people that... I dunno, maybe they can't have kids of their own or somethin' and they wanna take one in and raise it right, 'cause maybe the kid's got parents like us that are just kids and... and they just can't?"

The sudden silence in the car is deafening, and Jared can hear his own heartbeat thudding away in his ears. He can see the tell-tale twitch in Jensen's jaw, too, and that's usually not a good sign. Jensen broke a molar from clenching his teeth too hard once when he was upset and Jared's pretty sure the scale is tilting that way now. His response shows how hard he's pushing down those feelings.

"Babe, I'm down for talkin' options, I promise. But right now, I just wanna make sure our parents don't kill us before desert. Can we... I don't know how to have this conversation right now, okay? Plus, I think you just insulted my ability to be a good dad and I'm ignoring that in favor of not being mad at you about it."

He's been growing used to the idea of fatherhood in the past week and he doesn't like that Jared is doubting that they could do it, together, if they really gave it a shot. Plus, it's his kid. He doesn't want someone else to raise it.

Jared's eyes are only slightly wider than before but he ducks his head and nods, a quiet "Mhmm," sound comes from the passenger seat and gently squeezes Jensen's hand in hopes that he can keep him from being mad at him, because he didn't mean to insult him.

"Okay good," Jensen nods, easing off the gas pedal and braking to a stop at a red light. He looks over at Jared then, and shakes his hand a little so he'll look at him instead of staring at his lap. 

"Jared, I'm not really mad. I'm nervous as fuck, though, and I'm half terrified one of our parents is gonna use this as a reason we can't see each other anymore, and I can't have that. You're havin' my kid, man. You're... my whole fuckin' world revolves around you, and now there's even more reason for me to give you as much of my attention as I can. I can't lose that."

Jensen looks and sounds so genuine that Jared can feel tears forming.

"Let's get through tonight. Then we'll talk. I'll listen to everything you gotta say. But just... one step at a time, please?"

Jared concedes with a nod and points at the green light that just turned from red. Jensen continues driving in silence until he pulls into his driveway and they can see their sisters sitting on the big front porch swing, cell phones in hand and heads ducked together like they're sharing the worlds greatest secret.

Little do the girls know that their big brothers have a much bigger secret that's about to rock both of their family's worlds.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are love!


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